Substituted phenol



' Patented Mar. 16, 1943 SUBSTITUTED PHENOL I Fred Lowell Taylor and John E. Livak, Midland,

Mich., assignors to The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Mich, a corporation of Michican No Drawing. Application October 31, 1941, Serial No. 417,317

Claims. 101. 260 -619) This invention relates to new substituted phenols and, in particular, concerns substituted phenols containing three substituents, at least two of which are a-phenylethyl groups occupying two of the positions ortho and para to the hydroxyl group. Such compounds may be defined by the general formula 0 H i I R @r- HQ C H: CH:

wherein R representsan aryl or aralkyl radical,

and the a-phenylethyl groups occupy two of the positions ortho and para to the hydroxyl group.

These compounds are usually obtained as highboiling viscous liquids, although in some cases they may occur as resinousor crystalline solids. They are substantially insoluble in water, but are readily dissolved by organic solvents such as methanol, acetone, chloroben zene, ethanol, etc. ployed in the manufacture of phenol-aldehyde condensation products, and all of them are'valuable intermediates in the preparation of plasticizing agents, wetting agents, and other organic chemicals.

. The new compounds of the present class may It desired, the reaction may be carried out under reduced pressure or in a current of inert gas in order to facilitate removal of the hydrogen halide which is formed. Upon completion of the reaction, the poly-e-phenylethyl-substituted phenol product is recovered from the reaction mixture and purified by distillation under reduced pressure or by crystallization from a suitable solvent.

Certain of these compounds may be em- Usually there is obtained, along with the desired poly-substituted product, a small amount of a mono-substituted compound. Such compound is a valuable lay-product, and may be employed as an intermediate or it may be further reacted with an u-haloethylbenzene to form the poly-- substituted product.

The new products may also be prepared by reacting styrene with a substituted phenol in the presence of an acid catalyst. Also, a mixture of styrene and an a-haloethylbenzene may be employed, whereby the hydrogen halide formed by reaction between the a-haloethylbenzene and the phenol acts as a catalyst for the reaction between the styrene and the phenol.

The following example illustrates the preparation of several of the compounds of the present class but is not to be construed as limiting the invention.

Example 188 grams (2.0 moles) of phenol was heated to a temperature of about C. and 1074 grams of crude e-chloroethylbenzene containing ethylbenzene as an impurity was added over a period of hour. The temperature was then gradually raised to C. over a period of 2 hours, after which an additional 1070 grams of crude a-chloroethylbenzene was added, and the heating continued for 2 hours. ,The reaction 'mixture was then fractionally distilled under reduced pressure whereby. there was obtained tria-phenylethylphenol, a light-yellow viscous liquid distilling at approximately 250 to 260 C. under 3 millimeters pressure and having a specific gravity of about 1.085 at 25/25 C. and an indexof refraction of 1.6067 at 25 C. This product has the structural formula OH ZH -O tn i ii E -Q By reacting o-phenylphenol with a-chlorophenylphenol was obtained as a colorless viscous liquid distilling at approximately 255 to 265 C.

under 2 millimeters pressure and having a specific gravity of about 1.103 at 25/25" C. Other compounds of the present class which may be prepared as hereinbefore described are: 4.6-di-(aphenylethyl) 2 benzylphenol, 2.4-di(u-phenylethyl) -6-naphthyl phenol, 4.6-di(m-pheny1ethyl) 2- (o-tolyl) -phenol, 4.6-di (e-phenylethyl) -2- (2- itthylphenyh-phenol, etc.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our co-pending application, Serial No. 331,945, filed April 27, 1940. 1

We claim:

1. A substituted phenol having the general iormula 0 two of the positions ortho and para to the hydroxyl group.

2. A substituted phenol having the general mula l (3H1 Ha wherein R represents an aryl radical, and the u-phenylethyl substituents occupy two of the positions ortho and para to the hydroxyl group.

3. A substituted phenol having the general. formula 4. Tri-u-phenylethyl-phenol. 5. Di-a-phenylethyl-2-phenylphenol.

FRED LOWELL TAYLOR. JOHN E. LIVAK. 

